Which to use
“fondé” is an adjective and “fosse” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,259
- “fondé” frequency rank
- #7,964
- “fosse” frequency rank
- 11223
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fondé | fosse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Justifié, qui s’appuie sur des faits. | Cavité dans le sol, le plus souvent artificielle. |
Where the eye mixes fondé and fosse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. fondé and fosse follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses fondé with fosse
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fondé is \fɔ̃.de\ while fosse is \fos\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11223, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fondé is recorded at frequency rank #3,259, classified as anadj, pronounced \fɔ̃.de\. fosse is at rank #7,964, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fos\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 11223, this pair ranks #409,964 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of fondé vs fosse
Shared letters: fo. Private to "fondé": dné. Private to "fosse": es.
"fondé" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "fosse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- fosse ← ffosse · fose · foses · fsose · ofsse
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fondé" for "fosse" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "fondé" or "fosse" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "fondé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fosse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #409,964 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fondé" and "fosse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fosse vs fuse". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #409,964 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.